The biggest new and returning TV shows coming in 2023

If you thought 2022 was a big year for TV — well, it was. But that doesn’t mean 2023 doesn’t have a whole lot to pack in on its own.

Ask just about anybody and they’ll tell you that the world of television is a lot to keep up with these days. There’s a seemingly never-ending pile of new shows, returning shows, and (god help us) shows we keep meaning to catch up on, in addition to all the best movies, games, anime, and books of last year. While no one can simply give us all “more time” just willy-nilly, there are certainly ways to make 2023 the year you’re (mostly) on top of new releases.

This list is a stab at that: some of the biggest, best, most noteworthy, or just generally most exciting new releases in the world of TV coming in the next calendar year. There’s a lot of premiere dates that haven’t been announced yet, so you’ll see some stuff broken up by when you can expect it, with a healthy dose of unscheduled — but expected — premieres as well. While there’s almost certainly no way to get to all of it, we can absolutely start thinking about how to prioritize the things we want to make time for this year.

January

Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 2

Premieres on Disney Plus on Jan. 4

Image: Lucasfilm

Clone Force 99 is back for another adventure in The Bad Batch season 2, which takes place months after the events on Kamino from season 1. With a new season that already promises the return of new allies and enemies, season 2 should be yet another enjoyable trek through the post-Republic Star Wars universe. —Austen Goslin

Copenhagen Cowboy

Premieres on Netflix on Jan. 5

Image: Netflix

Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn is back for his second television show, and if it’s anything like the first, the wonderfully depraved yet contemplative Too Old to Die Young, then this show is likely to be an acquired taste that most people won’t spend more than 20 minutes on. That being said, if you like static shots, neon lights, and crimes happening in the seediest locations imaginable, Copenhagen Cowboy should leave you feeling right at home. —AG

Mayfair Witches

Premieres on AMC on Jan. 8

Image: AMC

Anne Rice fans have already notched a huge win with the Interview with the Vampire series in the fall. Mayfair Witches hopes to add to that, following a neurosurgeon who learns she’s the heiress to a dynasty of witches and able to kill with her mind when she gets mad. And really, it’s hard to go wrong with a premise like that. —Zosha Millman

Velma

Premieres on HBO Max on Jan. 12

Image: HBO Max

If you are someone who always thought the Scooby gang should be named after its most productive member, then you’ll love Velma, the animated prequel starring Mindy Kaling, Sam Richardson, Glenn Howerton, and Constance Wu as the four human Mystery Inc. members. Not only will we see how the gang solves a season-long mystery and come together as a squad, but Velma also gets to explore the romantic tension between almost every pairing with a “love quadrangle” between our favorite animated detectives. —ZM

Break Point

Premieres on Netflix on Jan. 13

Image: Netflix

The excellent team behind the groundbreaking docuseries Formula 1: Drive to Survive turns its focus to the world of tennis, following a select group of players as they play all over the world. Drive to Survive helped make F1 one of the fastest-growing sports in the U.S. over the past few years; can Break Point do the same for tennis? —Pete Volk

The Last of Us

Premieres on HBO Max on Jan. 15

Image: HBO

HBO’s big shot at a blockbuster game adaptation, The Last of Us will bring the story of the critically acclaimed PlayStation game to television, with the creator of Chernobyl at the helm. The series focuses on a cross-country journey embarked on by Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Ellie (Bella Ramsey), two survivors of an apocalyptic fungal infection that has ravaged the world and turned most of its inhabitants into zombies. Anchored by two excellent actors, who each seem like natural fits for their roles, The Last of Us is already shaping up to be one of the biggest shows of early 2023. —AG

The Owl House season 3

Premieres on Disney Plus on Jan. 21

Image: Disney

I almost don’t want the next two episodes of The Owl House to come out, because I simply don’t want the show to end. But I have full faith that the short-lived yet amazing Disney Channel original show will stick the landing. When we last left Luz and her friends, in the first of the three 44-minute specials that comprise the final season, they had found a way back to the Boiling Isles. Now, it’s up to them to save the demon realm from the machinations of the enigmatic Collector, a chaotic and all-powerful being who took over the Boiling Isles in the last moments of season 2. This time, though, Luz’s mom is coming with them! —Petrana Radulovic

How I Met Your Father season 2

Premieres on Hulu on Jan. 24

Photo: Patrick Wymore/Hulu

I am one of four people I know who watch this reboot-sequel-something of popular mid-2000s sitcom How I Met Your Mother. We exist! Apparently enough of us exist that the show was renewed for a second season — huzzah! Hilary Duff stars as Sophie, the titular “I” in How I Met Your Father. Like its predecessor, HIMYF revolves around a cast of friends navigating late-20s/early-30s life in NYC. Unlike HIMYM, this show doesn’t start with a mostly solidified friend group that just invites one newcomer into it; it shows the genesis of one. Additionally, unlike Ted Mosby’s long lead-up to meeting his future spouse, Sophie reveals to her future son that she actually met his dad in the events of the pilot! Ah! Sure, it’s corny and the comedic timing is right out of 2005, but man, if those characters aren’t dang endearing. —PR

Poker Face

Premieres on Peacock on Jan. 26

Image: Peacock

Glass Onion director Rian Johnson is sticking with the detective genre with his new Peacock show, Poker Face. The case-of-the-week series stars Natasha Lyonne as Charlie Cale, a woman who travels the country and solves crimes using her mysterious ability to tell when people are lying. The show boasts an impressive list of guest stars, including Adrien Brody, Benjamin Bratt, Cherry Jones, Chloë Sevigny, Hong Chau, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Stephanie Hsu, Tim Blake Nelson, and more. —Olivia Truffaut-Wong

Wolf Pack

Premieres on Paramount Plus on Jan. 26

Photo: Steve Dietl/Paramount Plus

It only took six years, but Teen Wolf is finally back with an original film and a new spinoff series, Wolf Pack. Unlike the movie, which will continue the story of the teen wolf himself, Scott McCall (Tyler Posey), Wolf Pack will tell an entirely new story. After a wildfire brings out a strange creature, two teens discover that they are now werewolves, and they must find their pack and learn how to survive.

The main draw of the series, however, lies in its casting of Sarah Michelle Gellar, who stars as Kristin Ramsey, a woman investigating the cause of the fire. Gellar, of course, is best known for her work in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and this series marks her first major return to the supernatural genre. —OTW

Lockwood & Co.

Premieres on Netflix on Jan. 27

Photo: Parisa Taghizadeh/Netflix

A detective thriller about teenage ghost hunters from the writer-director of Attack the Block? Color us intrigued. This is an adaptation of Jonathan Stroud’s book series, and while Netflix’s YA adaptations have been hit or miss, Joe Cornish’s involvement is enough to pique our curiosity. —PV

Frozen Planet 2

Premieres on BBC America and AMC Plus on Jan. 28

Image: BBC Earth

Another six episodes of nature documentary narrated by Sir David Attenborough? This is about as close to a layup as TV documentaries come, with what should be more fascinating chapters about life in the coldest regions — most notably, for me, the life of the frozen oceans. —ZM

February

You season 4

Premieres on Netflix on Feb. 9

Image: Netflix

Your favorite book-loving stalker, Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley), is going international for the last season of Netflix’s You. After killing his wife (RIP Love) and abandoning his son in the season 3 finale, Joe escaped to Paris in the hopes of finding Marienne (Tati Gabrielle), the unlucky object of his affections. Season 4 will take place in London, where Joe has reinvented himself as Jonathan Moore, a professor, and if I had to guess, I’d say there’s a good chance at least one of his students will go missing by the year’s end. It’s not really a season of You unless someone winds up dead. —OTW

Party Down season 3

Premieres on Starz on Feb. 24

Image: Starz

The wannabe actors of the Party Down catering crew return after a 12-year hiatus this winter. Everything and nothing has changed, with Ronald (Ken Marino) running the show, Henry (Adam Scott) suiting back up in his pink bowtie, and Kyle (Ryan Hansen) continuing being the heartthrob dummy who can’t catch a break. With 90% of the cast back, and a few newcomers — including Jennifer Garner and Disney XD grad Tyrel Jackson Williams — Party Down hopes to differentiate itself from other much-desired revival sitcoms (looking at you, Arrested Development) by not only picking back up with the characters, but nailing their quirky rhythms. We’ve seen some of the new season, and while we can’t say much yet, we can say: Party Down is absolutely back. —Matt Patches

March

The Mandalorian season 3

Premieres on Disney Plus on March 1

Image: Disney

Everybody’s favorite masked bounty-hunter-slash-dad returns after the events of The Mandalorian season 2 and — let me check my notes — also the back half of The Book of Boba Fett, for some reason. Mando fans who skipped Fett are advised to check it out, as it contains rather surprisingly large plot developments concerning Din Djarin and his diminutive son Grogu. —Susana Polo

Shadow and Bone season 2

Premieres on Netflix on March 16

Photo: Dávid Lukács/Netflix

Let the Darklina vs. Malina ship war continue. After a very action-packed first season, Shadow and Bone returns with all our favorite characters embarking on brand-new journeys. After temporarily defeating Gen. Kirigan (Ben Barnes), Alina (Jessie Mei Li) and Mal (Archie Renaux) are on the run, and the battle between light and darkness is just beginning. Meanwhile, the Crows are on their way home, and Nina (Danielle Galligan) and Matthias (Calahan Skogman) face new dangers. —OTW

Yellowjackets season 2

Premieres on Showtime on March 24

Photo: Kailey Schwerman/Showtime

Showtime’s breakout hit about a girls soccer team that crash-lands in the woods is coming back for a second season, and that’s good, because it’s still got two timelines’ worth of mysteries to solve. Thankfully, like all good mystery-box shows, the answers matter a whole lot less than the journey we take to reach them, and if season 2 is anything like the first, Yellowjackets’ journey should be a fun one every step of the way. —AG

Expected in 2023

Secret Invasion

Expected on Disney Plus in early 2023

Image: Marvel Studios

Marvel’s Secret Invasion will tell a story about aliens living among us. No, not superheroes exactly, but instead the shapeshifting Skrulls, who have infiltrated every hall of power in the world in an attempt to undermine its protectors before they even see it coming. Secret Invasion is being billed as a massive event and seems likely to be Marvel’s biggest TV show yet. None of that is to say that it will be good necessarily, but with a cast that includes Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), Olivia Colman (The Favourite), and Kingsley Ben-Adir (The OA), this event series should prove to at least be an interesting experiment in the now somewhat stale formula of Marvel’s TV efforts. —AG

Riverdale season 7

Expected on the CW in early 2023

Photo: Kailey Schwerman/The CW

In the past six years, Riverdale has explored serial killers, daddy issues, organ-stealing cults, aliens, the epic highs and lows of high school football, and the sudden arrival of the supernatural. Now, for its final season, the show will go somewhere brand-new: the 1950s. Returning to the show’s Archie Comics roots, Riverdale’s final season will essentially hit the restart button on the series, with Archie (KJ Apa) and the gang back at Riverdale High. —OTW

Succession season 4

Expected on HBO Max in spring 2023

Image: HBO

In many ways, nothing changed at the end of Succession season 3. The spoiled rich kids are still worth more money than most of us will see in our lifetimes, and their father still doesn’t think they have the acumen to do much in this crazy world. But if you’re excited for season 4 (and you should be), then you know that the world of Succession has been turned over in the season 3 finale. These rich people will continue to be pathetically self-interested, but god help me, I’m counting down the days to season 4’s spring debut. —ZM

Tiny Beautiful Things

Expected on Hulu in spring 2023

There is no such thing as too much Kathryn Hahn. In addition to starring in next year’s Agatha: Coven of Chaos, Hahn will star in Hulu’s Tiny Beautiful Things. The drama is based on Cheryl Strayed’s novel of the same name, based on Strayed’s experience as an advice columnist. Hahn stars as Clare, a writer with a floundering marriage and a complicated relationship with her teenage daughter, who suddenly gets the opportunity to give out life advice in her own column. The show co-stars Merritt Wever and Quentin Plair, with guest stars including Laura Dern and Reese Witherspoon. —OTW

Loki season 2

Expected on Disney Plus in mid-2023

Image: Marvel Studios

Last we saw the God of Lies, he was deep in the well on some time-travel shenanigans that had unleashed the maniacal Kang the Conqueror on the multiverse. This year, Loki Laufeyson returns to Disney Plus after Kang is done playing the antagonist in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. If you think keeping track of MCU plotlines is hard, imagine keeping track of the whole multiverse. —SP

X-Men ’97

Expected on Disney Plus in fall 2023

Image: Marvel Studios/Walt Disney Studios

Ever since its original run in the 1990s, X-Men: The Animated Series has earned praise for its skillful adaptation of Marvel Comics’ most political X-Men storylines, using the bigotry mutants face as a metaphor for the real-life experiences of various oppressed minorities. It’s still a kid-friendly show with some goofy and skippable episodes, but it’s also a show about how the X-Men — unlike their peers, the Avengers — can’t and don’t work with the government or local police. That’s because those institutions are the enemies of the show’s heroes, alongside right-wing religious leaders and bloodthirsty anti-mutant hate groups. The show’s commitment to radical politics make it hold up surprisingly well, even though it’s 30 years old — and based in part on comics that are even older than that.

That’s not the only reason to tune in when the show returns with brand-new episodes on Disney Plus in fall 2023. Unlike other X-Men adaptations since, from various cartoons to the live-action 20th Century Fox films, X-Men: The Animated Series is the only one that actually depicts Ororo Munroe, aka Storm, as the heavy-hitting powerhouse that she always has been in the comic books. For that reason and so many more (like Magneto leading the team in Professor X’s absence), the reprisal of X-Men: The Animated Series comes hotly anticipated by fans who want to see their fascist-fighting faves on screen once more. —Maddy Myers

Echo

Expected on Disney Plus in late 2023

Photo: Marvel Studios/Disney

Alaqua Cox returns as the antihero Echo in 2023, in a series that will feature her returning to her hometown to confront her past and reconnect with her Native American family — but it seems like violence will follow her home. At the end of 2021’s Hawkeye series, Echo seemed to have avenged her father by executing Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio). But readers know that when that happened in the comics, Fisk only lost his sight, not his life. D’Onofrio is, indeed, signed on for the series. —SP

Ironheart

Expected on Disney Plus in late 2023

Image: Marvel Studios

After her debut in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Dominique Thorne (If Beale Street Could Talk) returns to the MCU to star in her own series, Ironheart. The child prodigy made a name for herself in the movie by building her own Iron Man suit and creating a machine that could detect vibranium underneath the ocean floor on a dare. Thorne has made a name for herself with how instantly charming her Riri Williams was in Wakanda Forever, and we’re excited to see her again. —SP

Agatha: Coven of Chaos

Expected on Disney Plus in 2023

Image: Disney Plus

After stealing the show as Agnes/Agatha Harkness in WandaVision, Kathryn Hahn will star in her own Marvel spinoff show, Agatha: Coven of Chaos. Not much is known about the show’s plot, but the cast is rumored to include Aubrey Plaza, Patti LuPone, Sasheer Zamata, Joe Locke, Emma Caulfield Ford, and more.

The last we saw Agatha, the exceedingly powerful witch, was in the season finale of WandaVision. She was trapped in Westview as Agnes, her normal next-door neighbor alter-ego. Some reports suggest that Coven of Chaos will pick up where WandaVision left off, though, based on what we saw of Agatha’s backstory in the Salem Witch Trials, it seems likely we’ll get at least a few glimpses of what she’s been up to over the centuries. —OTW

Ahsoka

Expected on Disney Plus in 2023

Image: Lucasfilm

Star Wars’ most famous animated Jedi is finally getting her own live-action series, almost two years after Rosario Dawson first brought the character to life on season 2 of The Mandalorian. Along with Ahsoka, the show will also bring in a couple other famous animated faces from the Star Wars universe, like Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) and Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi), as well as bringing Hayden Christensen back as Darth Vader. — AG

American Born Chinese

Expected on Disney Plus in 2023

Gene Luen Yang’s terrific graphic novel is a standout piece of 21st-century literature for young people, and it gets a Disney Plus adaptation by way of creator Kelvin Yu (Bob’s Burgers) and directors Destin Daniel Cretton (Shang-Chi) and Lucy Liu (Lucy Liu!!!!). The cast includes all three stars of Everything Everywhere All at Once — Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, and Stephanie Hsu — as well as the reliably handsome and charismatic Daniel Wu as the mythic figure Sun Wukong. —PV

Babylon Berlin season 4

Expected on Netflix in 2023

Image: Netflix

Perhaps nothing speaks to the anticipation of this show more than this: Babylon Berlin season 4 was supposed to be a 2022 property (and in Germany it was; congrats, guys!). So what happened to Gereon and Charlotte after that tumultuous fall of 1929? Where will that dragon in the sewers pop up next? Give me my great twisty 1920s German mystery show back!! —ZM

Blindspotting season 2

Expected on Starz in 2023

Starz’s underrated gem Blindspotting is expected to return for season 2 in 2023. The show follows Ashley (Jasmine Cephas Jones), a single mother struggling to raise her son after her partner, Miles (Rafael Casal), is incarcerated. In a time of need, she moves in with Miles’ hippie mother, Rainey (Helen Hunt), and his entrepreneurial younger sister, Trish (Jaylen Barron). A sequel to the 2018 film Blindspotting, the dramedy uses spoken word, dance, and sometimes song, all to tell a story about mass incarceration, motherhood, and the murkiness of modern 20-to-30-something life. —OTW

Citadel

Expected on Prime Video in 2023

Citadel is a sci-fi espionage show, and that’s about all we know — aside from the fact that it will star Richard Madden and Priyanka Chopra, and that it’s created by Joe and Anthony Russo, along with ex-ABC studio president Patrick Moran. Look, I can’t make you get excited about a show from the Russo brothers (the duo behind Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, and several much worse projects since then). But what I can do is appeal to the part of you that wants to see someone set a ludicrous amount of money on fire by telling you that this series cost nearly as much as Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, making Citadel the second-most-expensive series of all time. And all that money’s got to look like something, at least. —AG

Clone High

Expected on HBO Max in 2023

Image: MTV

You guys, we are getting more Clone High in 2023. More Clone High! There’s plenty of reasons to wonder if Clone High and its wacky, pitch-perfect teen show parody can hold its own in a television landscape some 20 years removed from when it started. But I believe that this show about clones of famous figures all in high school together can go the distance. Now your friends will no longer ask you what that DVD box set is; they’ll say, Oh yeah, isn’t that the show on HBO Max? Should I watch that?

(Yes, we all should — more Clone High!!) —ZM

Futurama

Expected on Hulu in 2023

Image: Fox

Good news, everyone! Futurama is back! Wait… Futurama is back? Yes!

20 new episodes are coming to Hulu at some point this year, and while initial reports had Bender voice actor John DiMaggio sitting out, he announced in March he will be joining the show after all, with the rest of the main cast. That includes Billy West, who voices series protagonist Fry and many other characters. All glory to the Hypnotoad for that, because I do not want to live in a world without Dr. Zoidberg. —PV

Gen V

Expected on Prime Video in 2023

Image: Prime Video

Viewers of The Boys already know how superheroes are made, but how are they nurtured? Gen V, the new spinoff to the R-rated superhero dramedy, will answer that question. The show takes place in Godolkin University, a Vought International university for suped-up teenagers. And if you thought the superheroes in The Boys were messy, violent, impulsive, and dangerous, just imagine them before their brains are fully developed. The show stars Jaz Sinclair, Lizze Broadway, Sean Patrick Thomas, Chance Perdomo, and Patrick Schwarzenegger. —OTW

The Idol

Expected on HBO Max in 2023

Image: Warner Media

Real-life pop superstar Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye is teaming up with Euphoria creator Sam Levinson to make a TV show about a pop star named Jocelyn (Lily-Rose Depp) who falls from the top of the charts and joins a cult lead by a man named Tedros (Tesfaye). The show’s premise and trailers already seem to give it a darker bent than even Euphoria, and it will include a parade of famous faces including everyone from Eli Roth to Jennie from Blackpink. —AG

The Legend of Vox Machina season 2

Expected on Prime Video in 2023

Image: Critical Role, Titmouse/Prime Video

The first season of this show proved the impossible: A TTRPG podcast could be successfully and fluidly ported over to television and still be a massive hit. It didn’t matter that Vox Machina was mostly just repeating the first season of the pod (even though there are certainly changes they did make to translate it, both as a story and as an animation). Legend of Vox Machina took Critical Role and turned it into a fantasy adventure; season 2 should hopefully continue the trend. —ZM

Never Have I Ever season 4

Expected on Netflix in 2023

Photo: Isabella B. Vosmikova/Netflix

It’s been a delight to watch Devi grow as a character in the past three seasons of Never Have I Ever. She started the show angry, impulsive, and bitter, lashing out at her mom and other loved ones. But the past season showed her making some really mature decisions and ultimately choosing to spend her senior year with her mom instead of some fancy prep school, just so she can spend more time with her. That’s growth! All of Devi’s relationships have blossomed in wonderful ways, and it’ll sure be bittersweet to see the gang at Sherman Oaks High School head into their senior year and graduate. —PR

Severance

Expected on Apple TV Plus in 2023

Photo: Atsushi Nishijima/Apple TV Plus

One of the breakout hits in 2022 television, Severance was Polygon’s No. 3 show of the year, and for good reason: My colleague Zosha Millman described it as “a high-wire act, a series of plates spinning atop sticks and staying perfectly balanced.” With compelling production design, a game cast asked to deliver difficult dual performances, and a bizarre premise that nevertheless hits close to home, Severance is an ambitious show that ended with a bang last spring. We can’t wait to see what happens next. —PV

The Star Trek shows

Expected on Paramount Plus in 2023

Photo: Marni Grossman/Paramount Plus

Paramount Plus knows the Star Trek franchise is its golden goose — why else would it have five separate Star Trek shows likely to drop a season in 2023? We’d complain more if the quality wasn’t so remarkably reliable. Ranging from solid kids’ fare to loving nostalgia plays and animated comedy to modern sci-fi drama, there’s even room for a classic episodic throwback that was one of our favorite shows of the year. Expect new seasons of Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Prodigy, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and a final season of Star Trek: Picard all in 2023. —SP

The Three-Body Problem

Expected on Netflix in 2023

OK hear me out: Yes, it’s the Game of Thrones guys at the helm of this adaptation of an acclaimed sci-fi novel. But also, it’s a new live-action series inspired by Chinese author Liu Cixin’s acclaimed science fiction novel The Three-Body Problem. In this case I think it’s worth letting David Benioff and D.B. Weiss potentially let me down again. —ZM

True Detective: Night Country

Expected on HBO Max in 2023

The past three seasons of True Detective have been somewhat hit or miss, but even if you’ve sworn off the show, season 4 has something that’ll draw you back in: Jodie Foster. The actor, who famously played an FBI agent in Silence of the Lambs, is going back to her detective roots this season, playing Alaskan detective Liz Danvers. Along with her partner, Evangeline Navarro (Keli Reis), Danvers is tasked with finding out what happened to six men who disappeared one night in Ennis, Alaska. The season also stars John Hawkes and former Doctor Who Doctor Christopher Eccleston. —OTW

The Witcher season 3

Expected on Netflix in 2023

Photo: Susie Allnutt/Netflix

It may feel wild to be actively looking forward to a Witcher property after Blood Origin, but consider: It’s the last Henry Cavill season. He is someone who has not only defined the role of Geralt but the show itself, bringing as much depth and care as one could hope for. And The Witcher has been a resolutely solid, sage fantasy series on the whole. It’s something we could use more of in 2023. —ZM